SPACE AND GEOMETRY 37 



dotted line. It was at first supposed that ocean 

 currents made the circuitous path the quicker 

 one, but no such currents could be discerned. 

 Then it was proposed that some great sub- 

 merged mountain of lodestone caused variations 

 in the compass, but all efforts to locate its 

 whereabouts were vain. 



Finally a young man, who had always been 

 a little queer, brought forward the suggestion 

 that the path of navigation between Moa and 

 Ilo (the dotted line) was really a straight line, 

 and to this he added several other statements 

 so heretical in character that he was tried, con- 

 demned and eaten. He had no sooner been well 

 digested, however, than other young men took 

 up the new idea, and in particular tested his 

 prediction that the distance between two of the 

 northern islands shown on the map to be ten 

 days' paddling apart would prove to be really 

 much longer. This and other predictions being 

 fulfilled the new advanced geometry was soon 

 accepted and taught to mariners under the 

 name Uliao, which means "more than UK." It 

 was found that the old elementary Uli was still 

 perfectly satisfactory for the home and thence 

 arose the saying, "Uli for the minnow, Uliao 

 for the shark." 



